Blog Entries by Tom Harding (2012)

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I've never seen the sky so blue

The grass so green, the day so new

I can't believe it but it must be true

I've cried enough for you.

I've been so long in empty rooms

A bed, a window and the moon

My discipline has seen me through

I've cried enough for you

I'm coming down the mountainside

The path is steep, my heart is wide

It's dark and h...

Monday 15th October 2012 10:27 pm

I had a desk on the first floor
Of a four way street.
There was a bedroom,
Bathroom and kitchen.
The desk was pushed up against
The window where
I would sit and watch the
People pass below.
I was filled with a great type of loneliness,
The sort that consumes everything
And colours the world.
I'd sit there pouring away hours
Without fear of waste,
Without a sens...

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Saturday 13th October 2012 9:44 pm

Sometimes We Wonder How We Met...

Sometimes we wonder how we met
And though we might imagine
We will never quite remember
How our faces looked
The moment you passed
Your eyes over mine.
Did I kneel before you then?
Did my eyes reveal it all?
The shoreline with it’s littered wrecks,
The seas with it’s broken masts
And swelling fogs.
Did I beg for you then?
In that brief moment,
So sweet and unique to st...

Saturday 6th October 2012 8:02 pm

The Moon in Summer

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The moon in summer
Is pure above the fields
Like a coin settled
In a clear pool.

Like good wine

Such sites induce clarity,

Sharpening the senses.

You lunge at the old sticking blocks

With Ocram’s razor,

Slicing out sentiment

With scientific thrift.

You tie on new shoes,

Quit your job,

Ask a woman to leave,

Throw out all your books

...

Saturday 8th September 2012 8:22 pm

First Night Of Snow

The world has gone to bed

Under clean sheets

Snow a foot deep

Is covering the rotten leaves of the yard,

The wheelbarrow and cedar logs

Are sleeping too.

That night nothing happens-

Dreams fill with static,

Faces go hidden,

No words are said.

A silence of falling

Cuts out all echoes.

Even the cat,

Firs...

Thursday 6th September 2012 10:20 pm

Behind the Job Interviewers Head

Clear May morning

Blue sky and breeze,

Buildings cut cleanly in the air.

Mirrored towers reflecting

Planes tugging strips of cloud,

Two smoke stacks pluming,

A crane limping cargo into view,

Pigeons rising, falling.

Down the hall

A women in a white blouse

Reaches f...

Saturday 1st September 2012 8:18 pm

Blessed Is The Marriage

Blessed is the sacred
Depression of the woman
In the bedroom of mirrors

Blessed is the dead man
Who feeds her
Marching here and there
With broken porcelain

Blessed is the cat
Who lives between them
Inside the room stinking with sleepers

Blessed is the house they call home
Whose walls are cracked
And racked with guilt and mold

Blessed is the child who may
...

Tuesday 28th August 2012 11:15 pm

Quince Tree

The little quince tree
Is rustling it’s leaves
Beside our window
Bright and green,
Shivering in the late
September breeze,
It’s thin limbs weighed
With fruit long shed
Of spring fur.

How many days have we laid?
It’s dark thin arms
Leaning out to us,
Like those of the street sellers
Along the mountain road

How long watching the sun sink
Below the terracotta...

Monday 27th August 2012 3:19 pm

Polaroid

Four black men in hats
Two skinny girls with bangs
One drops what they were holding
And two young men appear
Carrying packs of beer
A man lifts up his shirt
Revealing a bandage
Covering his abdomen
A boy in a blue cap
Drinks coke
A woman in an orange dress
Her face red
Is talking agitatedly
To a bald man doing
Gorilla impressions
A smart looking man
Waits at ...

Sunday 26th August 2012 7:30 pm

Funeral

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Filled with heavy silence

The clouds went on, shaking their sieve

Adding to a sour day all around.

All purpose was missing,

On a weekday torn from routine.

The depressed bodies

Mooned like tourists

Amongst the trestle tables,

Eating to keep from talking,

Black jackets wet with an odor of mold.

I sat watching out the window

Where the clouds...

Wednesday 25th April 2012 10:32 pm

Sunday Evening

Windswept, time moves

As the clouds pass,

The tall grass

Flashes blue in the breeze,

Dusk settles inwards,

Invoking times steel trap

And herding men's minds

Through routine.

All across the town

People are setting aside books

And model sailing ships.

In dark small houses

They are brushing their teeth

And climbing into freshly

Launde...

Monday 23rd April 2012 10:42 pm

Jury Duty

Oh Deadman, busy day
Trying to make the world pure!
Now some dusty moth is
Banging noiselessly
Against a closed window
Trying to reach the new moon.
It makes you cold
To watch it,
In the shivering dark,
While your wife and cat
Sleep soundlessly.
It irritates you enough
To end it’s life,
Then return to bed
Amongst the sleeping bodies.
The moon climbs high
At ...

Saturday 14th April 2012 9:03 pm

We Were Not Serious People

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We met for coffee, it was April
Our mornings were free then,
We sat in cafes on tree lined streets
That reminded you of Paris.
We flirted but made no advance,
We were not serious people,
The seriousness of our lives hadn’t begun.
We talked about love and Hemingway,
We talked about the war
We were sincere
We drank coffee until noon
In cafes on tree lined streets
On week...

Tuesday 10th April 2012 9:51 pm

Titles, Another Life

The spring, the hills, the blossom

The walls of the town

The blue hills

The wind pulling blossom

The cotton dress

The white curtains

The moving trees

The canopy and empty garden

The walls, the street

The white walls of the town

The women

The yellow stone

The white curtains

The light of early evening

The swallows

The white dress

...

Monday 9th April 2012 1:17 pm

Office Poem 1

Training pack course 1.4
Crucial Conversations
A learning tool
That will give
You the skills
To prepare for
High-stake situations
With a proven technique
Transform anger
And hurt feelings
Into powerful
Dialogue
Make it safe
To talk about
Almost anything
Be persuasive,
Not abrasive
Master robust
Language
To manage expectations
Resonate with your stakeho...

Sunday 8th April 2012 12:23 pm

The Cat Asleep

Saturday 25th February 2012 8:46 pm

New York, Honeymoon Poem no.3

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Spring, the birds are singing,
Leaping inside their bright world
While colourful predatory taxis move
In the shadows of the street.
Someone saws wood
Someone practices cello
The limbs of the trees
Blow towards one another
Crossing arms
Close enough
For the birds to hop between.
People shuffle close
On the warm street
Cascading like leaves
Into the dark subway.
...

Friday 17th February 2012 5:25 pm

I remember the morning...

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I remember the morning
I closed the book
On our memory
The wind blew about
And knocked over the bins
Someone kept telling me
It was spring
But I knew it was winter
As the windows and doors
Had frozen shut
And everywhere people went
They kept blowing into their hands
Muttering to themselves,
Engrossed
In the work of their lives
Even the homeless man
Tucking ...

Wednesday 15th February 2012 9:53 pm

Folk Song

On the day we died black dogs ran through the carriage.

The cook buried his daughter in the soup.

The groom severed the head of the bride and fed her remains
to the horses.

The children rank amok in the village while the sky filled with crows.
Nurse maids fed spoons of brine to the landowner’s baby

While the old women of the town stirred crows feet

Into the st...

Tuesday 14th February 2012 10:39 pm

Famous Scenes Of Sadness (01/02/12)

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The morning comes
The birds wake
Singing news
The world’s survived

Coffee, paper,
Mothers on television,
Screaming over brothers
Sons, husbands

Hysterical shawled heads
Like horses,
Open mouthed
Consuming grief

The backdrop
Some Guernica scene
Of gored limbs,
Shattered houses

One more morning awake
Some tragic blunder,
A bombed weddin...

Wednesday 1st February 2012 9:45 pm

A Story

There was a man who lived in city. He lived in a small room three floors up from the street and frequently felt very lonely. Now when I mention the city I won't say which one, as this might be misleading. It would prove less confusing to say which city it wasn't rather than which it was. For instance if I said it was London you might conjure a picture in your mind, perhaps of a man sat in a sma...